Bigger isn’t always necessary
Key Takeaways
Sonymay be about to releasea 1-inch image sensor for smartphones.
This could be revolutionaryif only manufacturers can fit them in.
A bigger chip means better images, but theres a reason that they aren’t used in phones.
Dan-Cristian Pădureț / Unsplash
Fitting It All In
Its simple enough to fit a bigger sensor into a phone.
The problem is with the lenses.
A 1-inch sensor measures 13.2 x 8.8 mm.
Parker Johnson / Unsplash
A typical phone sensor, like the one found in the iPhone, might be 7 x 5.8 mm.
Bigger is Way, Way Better
Bigger camera sensors bring many advantages.
One is that theyre better at gathering light.
This really helps out in low light, where every photon counts.
Bigger sensors also have an optical advantage: shallower depth-of-field.
Depth-of-field (DoF) is the amount of an image that looks to be in focus.
With a small sensor, everything appears in focus, from close up to far away.
It can look pretty good, but its not quite perfect yet.
This lets them overcome many of the disadvantages of small sensors.
Panorama modes let you stitch together small images to make bigger ones, and so on.
That rules out the iPhone, which is about as mass-market as it gets.
“I do think photographers and videographers make sense as specialized customers to pursue.
Im just not aware of any products that have really succeeded in that goal.”
That would be pretty sweet.
